Between Heart and Knowledge
by gimmethatdauntlesscake
Summary: A fanfic about Caleb going through initiation in Erudite. It's more interesting than it sounds P.S. It'll become a little fluffy later on
1. Welcome To Erudite

Between Heart and Knowledge || Chapter 1

I did it. I can't believe I chose Erudite. I always knew I would, but I was hoping my aptitude test would tell me otherwise. I was hoping I wouldn't have to leave my family, and that I'd live a simple life in Abnegation. I thought I would be the child that stays. I knew Beatrice wouldn't stay, she always stood out in Abnegation. Her instincts weren't to be selfless the way mine were. Our parents must be crushed. Especially with me choosing the one faction my father hates above all the others. But we're both left, Beatrice will become Dauntless… and I will become Erudite.

As we walk to the erudite compound after the choosing ceremony, a pale candor boy dark brown hair and eyes to match bumps into me.

"Sorry" he says "I was pushed"

"It's alright… I'm Caleb"

"Zander" he says, "but I'm thinking of changing it to something more intelligent, like Cornelius or something" That's when I let out a laugh.

"Haha... guess not" he said as we reached the Erudite compound. It's a beautiful glass building that reflects the sunlight and emits rich colors everywhere.

"Hello initiates," said a tall man with glasses that are a little too big for his face.

"My name is Jude and I will be one of your instructors. Your other instructor is behind these doors." His arm motions to 12 doors all in a row each equipped with what looks like a small computer screen.

"Your first test in initiation is the solve the puzzle on the screen to get past the doors. Each puzzle is different than the one the person next to you has. This way no one can cheat...good luck" He walks away through an alternate entrance. I'm guessing they only use these doors for initiation.

On my screen is a crossword puzzle with 10 different blanks to fill in. You could see the sweat coming from my hands on the screen, but I couldn't stop now. I'm already half done and I know every single answer. I finally reach the last question: 10. last Faction to be established. Easy-abnegation. Barely a second after I type it, the door slides open, and I step inside. I am the first one to finish the puzzle, and I am greeted by a girl with golden brown hair and glasses.

_Of course,_I thought

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Caleb" I say confidently. In order to become Erudite, I have to act Erudite, and that means answering every question like I know everything.

"You can wait in the library while the rest of the initiates finish," she said.

"Oh, and by the way, welcome to erudite" she said, as I briskly began to walk away.


	2. The Compound

After about 10 minutes, all the initiates are in the library.

"My puzzle was a word scramble" Zander said. "What was yours?"

"A crossword puzzle" I replied. Just as I finished my sentence, Jude walked in with the lady who asked me my name. I assume she is the other instructor.

"You all know my name, but this is your other instructor Sandra. Erudite borns come with me, transfers go with her," Jude said, gesturing to Sandra.

"We will start with a tour of the compound" said Sandra. Sandra seemed so different from the others. Whenever she spoke, her voice never seemed as if she knew everything, like most Erudite. Every word that came out of her mouth was said with a smile. She didn't look much older than me, 17 or 18 at the most. She is the only person I've ever seen with green eyes.

"Now that you've all seen the library, we will be heading towards the computer lab. The center of life, here in erudite."

It was huge. A few of the other initiates mouths hung open. There were endless rows of computers, all with people quickly typing on them.

"About 53% of the jobs in Erudite are done here," stated Sandra. We made our way to an office with glass windows at the end of the room. Jeanine Matthews was inside.

"This is Jeanine Matthews, leader of Erudite's office," Sandra introduced. We came to a stop in front of the sliding doors.

"Hello initiates. As most of you know I am Jeanine Matthews leader of Erudite. I wish all of you could become full fledged members of our society as Erudite, but unfortunately, a few people will be cut at the end of each stage of initiation. I'm sure Sandra will explain more later. She ranked first in her initiate class last year, and she is my secretary when she isn't training initiates," said Jeanine.

"Well enough about me, we have to finish our tour. It was nice seeing you Jeanine," Sandra cut in.

"You as well," Jeanine replied.

Just as I began walking away, I felt a hand on my shoulder. "We'll if it isn't Caleb Prior. I never took you for a transfer, let alone a transfer to Erudite. I couldn't even begin to imagine your father's reaction was to your decision," Jeanine said.

"Well I didn't stay long enough to witness his reaction," I replied.

"I wish you luck in initiation Caleb," She simply replied. And with that, she walked away. I was a few feet behind the tour so I had to jog to catch up. Everyone was crowded around a polished wooden door.

"These will be your living quarters as you go through initiation," Sandra announced as she opened the door. The crowd began to walk through the room with 14 beds.

"Boys or girls?" asks Zander.

"Both" replied Sandra.

"During initiation, the transfers and erudite-born separate, but like all the other factions you will be ranked in comparison with the erudite born initiates. No one will be cut in the first stage of initiation, but in the second and third stages, there will be cuts." Sandra said without a smile.

"I will let you get settled in, and I will be back to lead you to the dining hall," Sandra said. We watched her walk out the door and walk to the the end of the hall and disappear into nothingness.

"I call the top bunk," Zander yelled in my ear and jumped into the one above mine.


	3. Chapter 3

Under each bed is some clothing. For boys it's a simple blue suit and tie with a white button up shirt. For girls it's a blue blazer with a matching pencil skirt and almost the same button up shirt. Everyone takes turns changing and a few go into the bathroom. At least privacy is still respected in Erudite. After everyone is dressed, Sandra re-enters and leads us to the dining hall. Once we get there, I finally get a good look at all the transfers. There are 10 transfers total. There is one amity boy and one amity girl. Two dauntless girls and one boy. And two candor boys(including Zander) and 2 girls. And I am the only abnegation.

I sit at a table with Zander, since he seems to be my only friend, and a candor girl is sitting with him. "Hi I'm Lexi, pleased to make your acquaintance"says the candor girl offering me her hand. I shake it and reply "Caleb" "Really Lexi? Pleased to make your acquaintance?" Zander said. "I thought I'd try it out. If we're going to be erudite, we might as well talk like them," Lexi snapped. "Well at least it doesn't sound as stupid as Cornelius. Zander almost changed his name to that." I say. "Hahahahaha" giggles Lexi . Zander was too busy eating his salad to notice us laughing at him.

When Lexi finished laughing,Zander turns his head around and I turn mine too to see what he's looking at. And that's when we saw Sandra walk in.

"She's really cute" Zander said. Lexi rolled her eyes. "What? C'mon Caleb,back me up on this" Zander says. "She's...attractive" I say.

I didn't know what else to say. I've never even thought anything like that about anyone in abnegation before. The only person I've ever looked at before was Susan, but that was before I met Sandra.

The next morning, we all wake up and report to the training center promptly at 8am. And Sandra already there waiting for us. The training center is basically just one large square room with floor to ceiling windows on one wall.

"The first stage of training involves teamwork. You will be split into two groups of five, and you will have to combine all of your knowledge to work efficiently together. In the second stage, you will be put through a series of simulations where you will have to use the knowledge you have gathered to get yourself out of a situation. The third and final stage of initiation will involve a written test and a simulation test. The written test will determine how well you have paid attention throughout initiation. The simulation test will combine all of your previous problem solving simulations into one final test. Any questions?" There is only silence. "Good. I didn't expect any."

This room is mainly used for the written test along with other things, but the teamwork stage begins in this room. She leads us through a door into a room with huge metal walls in the middle. "You will go one group at a time through this maze and each group is given 30 minutes to get to the end. If you don't get through it, you and your entire group go down in the rankings. So I suggest you all put your egos aside and work together"


	4. Chapter 4-The maze

The teams are posted on the wall behind me Sandra says, as she steps aside to reveal a single piece of paper taped to the wall. These are the teams:

Team one:

Paul

Zander

Lexi

Genevieve

Jonathan

Team two:

Victoria

Grant

Alexandra

Clarrisse

Caleb

"I will be watching the teams on a computer in a different room. This is so that we can see who contributes the most in the groups, and so we can figure out where to rank you."

"Every day your teams change," she adds,"so don't get comfortable."

"Thank goodness, I hope I don't have to be with the Stiff tomorrow" says a girl whom I don't know.

"Just shut up Alexandra, no one cares what you think " snaps Lexi.

I whisper to Lexi," thanks for defending me"

"No problem. She's so irratating and all the girls back in Candor hated her."

I was called a Stiff pretty much on a regular basis at school, but it's not who I am anymore. I left selflessness for knowledge. I always wondered where I belong, but now I am sure. I'm going to prove that I am truly Erudite.

_faction before blood_

Since I am on team two, I have to wait until team 1 finishes going through the maze. After about 25 minutes, we hear a beeping noise signaling that the other team has made it through. For our team to move ahead in the rankings, we're going to have to beat their time.

We start lining up at the entrance,and Alexandra looks at me with a scowl one last time before the doors open. Slowly, we start to follow the boy named Grant down the dimly lit corridors of the maze. We keep to the right for about 2 minutes until a wall moves in front of us, blocking our path.

"It's a dead end," says Grant.

"We can see that," retorts Alexandra. With just a hint of a smirk on his face, Grant replies,"you just don't know when to stop do you Ally?"

"Don't call me that," Alexandra snaps.

"Guys cut it out. We need to get out of here fast if we want to move ahead, so both of you just stop bickering," Clarrisse says.

"She's right...and I think we should split up," I say.

"That's not a bad idea," Clarrisse replies,"but we have an uneven number. Who's going to go alone?"

"I'll go alone,"says Grant.

"Ok then I will go with Caleb and Alexandra can go with Victoria"

Everyone nods in agreement,then me and Clarrisse start to head back the way we came.


	5. Chapter 5

As I walk beside Clarrisse, I finally figure out why the maze feels so different than the rest of Erudite. It's metal walls look old and rusty, despite the modern feel of the glass windows all over the Erudite compound. The smell is different here too. In here it smells like dust and mildew, but in the compound, everything smells new and fresh.

I was lost in thought so long, that I didn't even realize Clarrisse had stopped and I bumped into her. "Sorry" I mutter.

"It's alright, but this is another dead end."

"Why don't we try going down the corridor between this one and the one where we split up,"

"Ok, but we have to pick up the pace. We only have 10 minutes left to beat team one's time," Clarrisse says. Then we start walking back without another word.

This corridor was different. I took lots of twists and turns, and I actually lost Clarrisse a couple of times. After about 6 minutes of walking, I heard a voice,"Caleb I found the exit!" Clarrisse shouted. I turned around to face Clarrisse running toward me. "I memorized the way out. We have to find the others," Clarrisse said. "Ok let's go."

I started walking back the way I came and started shouting the names of my different team members. "Victoria!"

Them Clarrisse started to do the same,"Alexandra!"

"Grant!"

"Yeah?" replied a deep voice.

"Stay where you are. We're coming" Clarrisse yelled back.

We broke into a steady jog in the direction Grant's voice was coming from, and soon we found him.

"What's going on," he questioned, "did you guys find the exit?"

"Clarrisse found it. We have to find Alexandra and Victoria," I said.

"yeah," Grant looked down at his watch,"and we better hurry."

Then Grant took off running. I never thought we'd have to do anything that involved physical activity in Erudite, but I guess I was wrong.

"Alexandra!Victoria!" we took turns shouting, but eventually we started yelling at the same time.

"We're over here" they hollered back. As soon as we turned the corner, we found them.

"Did u guys find something?" Victoria asked. This time it was Grant who replied,"Clarrisse found the exit, but we better hurry if we want to beat the other team's time."

Clarrisse led the way as we all jogged behind her toward to the exit. She took sharp turns and it took a while for us to catch up. Finally,after a sharp left turn, I started to see a light at the end on the hall. As we began to sprint, I could see the other initiates and Sandra waiting for us.

Clarrisse was the first one out of the maze, and the rest of us quickly followed. Our team cheered as we discovered we beat the other team by one minute. It wasn't much, but we were still going to move ahead of them in the rankings.

"Good work," said Sandra,"but like I said, don't get comfortable. You're going to have new teammates tomorrow. And the maze changes and gets harder every day."

Some of the nicer people on team one congratulated us, but most of them still stood there with their arms crossed. Then Zander and Lexi came up to me,"Nice job" said Zander. "I hope I'm with you tomorrow," said Lexi. "Thanks," I replied, trying to seem modest,"but Clarrisse was the one who figured it out" Then Clarrisse started to walk over to us.

"I can't take all the credit, you helped too."I knew she was trying to be nice, but I don't see how I really helped.

"You did most of the work though" I said.

"Please. If you hadn't suggested splitting up, we might still be in there."

"Good point."

"Why don't we go celebrate?" says Lexi. "What are we gonna do, read?" Zander says sarcastically.

"Nope. I have a way more fun idea in mind"


	6. Chapter 6-fuzzy

"This way guys," Lexi says, as she,Zander,Clarrisse,and I tiptoe down an empty hallway.

"Wait here," she whispers, "I'll check if the coast is clear."

We all do what we're told and wait, as she walks a few feet ahead and peeks her head around the corner. Then she whispers/shouts, "the coast is clear"

The three of us start to make our way down the hallway,anxiously waiting to see what Lexi has in store for us.

"Would you please tell us what we're doing?" Zander says. "You'll find out soon. Almost there," Lexi replies.

Quietly, we follow Lexi around the corner, straight into a kitchen.

"Welcome to the Erudite kitchen," announces Lexi, throwing her arms in the air for dramatic effect.

"How did you know how to get here?" asks Clarrisse.

"My sister told me," Lexi replies, trying to reach for something on a shelf.

"She's part of the reason I came to Erudite. Things weren't the same back home without her. That's why it was such a relief for me to get Erudite as my aptitude test result. It was a difficult decision to leave my parents all alone, but I bet we all had to make tough decisions."

I started to think of my own sister. Beatrice. Would things be the same if I had stayed,if only she had left? I wonder how she's doing in Dauntless. Is she getting picked on too because she's a Stiff?

I suddenly started to realize that I miss Beatrice...and my parents.

Lexi was still trying to reach something on a high shelf when Zander said,"Need some help there short stuff?"

"No,I don't need any help from you, Cornelius" Lexi retorted. "You guys aren't going to let me live that down are you?"

"No," I started to say while laughing,"no we're not."

Zander grumbled and walked over to Lexi. He picked up a glass bottle of clear, bubbling liquid, and walked over to us. Then Lexi walked over with three more bottles in her hand.

"I'm not quite sure which one gives you a clear head and which one gives you a fuzzy head," she says, "but I guess we'll find out."

Lexi offers me the bottle, and hesitantly I take it from her. I twist off the cap and raise the bottle to my lips."WAIT!" Lexi shrieks,"we all take the first sip together. On three... .Three!"

I take my first sip. The drink is sweet as syrup and lemon-flavored, and it makes me cringe a little. My second sip is better.

"I think I got the fuzzy one," Zander says almost falling over. He takes another sip and this time, he does fall. Clarrisse walks over to help him up, and then we all start laughing-including Zander.

Eventually we all end up taking seats on the kitchen counter as we finish our drinks.

"After this you guys want to go get a pair of glasses?" asks Lexi.

"Yeah sure," replies Clarrisse.

"We'd love to join you guys," I start to say, "but I think I should get Zander back to the dormitory."

"What're you talking about I'm...I'm fine," Zander says.

"I think Caleb's right, Zander. See you guys later," Lexi says.

We all walk out of the kitchen together. But I have to practically drag Zander back to the dorm.

Once we're almost there, we see Sandra start to walk down the hall in the opposite direction. She stops when she sees us.

"What happened to him?" she asks.

"I...um...he..."

"Did he have a fizzy drink? The kind that makes your head fuzzy?"

"yeah..." I replied, embarrassed. I was grateful she figured it out, because I wasn't quite sure how I would reply if she hadn't.

"Just make sure he gets a lot of sleep. He's going to have an enormous headache when he wakes up."

"Ok"

She begins to walk away but stops to say one more thing. "By the way," she says, "the fuzzy ones have a black dot on the bottom of the bottle, and the clear ones don't."

This time she kept walking, as I turned the doorknob to get into the room.

**A.N. Thanks for all the reviews. You guys are the reason I keep writing -alex**


	7. Chapter 7

"Wake up!" I yelled, while hitting Zander with a pillow. We are the last people in the dorms because everyone else has left to the training center already.

"My head is throbbing like crazy," he replies under the covers in a muffled voice.

"Just get some medicine from the infirmary then get your butt to the training center as soon as you can," I say.

"But then I'll be late and then I might miss my turn in the maze then I'll go down in the rankings and then I'll become factionless," he whines.

"Better late than never," I say as I start making my way to the training center. I know it was kind of harsh to leave him by himself, but I'm not going to let his problems get in the way of me making it into Erudite.

I walk into the training center and look down at my watch. 8:00, I made it just in time. At that moment, Lexi walks over to me. "What happened to Zander," she asks.

"He still had a headache this morning, so he went to the infirmary to get some medicine."

"Well he better hurry back,he's on team one again today," she says. That's when I start to worry. What if he doesn't make it back in time? Will he go down in the rankings? Tomorrow is our last day going into the maze, and if his team loses tomorrow, he will most likely become factionless.

"This is all my fault. If I had known how to tell apart the fuzzy kind from the clear kind, he wouldn't be in this mess," Lexi says, on the verge of tears,"he's a really good friend and I don't want to lose him."

"Hey, it's going to be okay. It's not just your fault,it's mine too. And Clarrisse's. None of us stopped him from drinking it...not one of us."

"Thanks Caleb, you're also a really good friend," she says, her voice trembling a little.

"No problem." Comforting Lexi turned out to be surprisingly easy, given my old Abnegation habit of putting other people's feelings before my own.

Fortunately, I'm on team 2 today with Lexi, but Clarrisse ended up being on team one with Zander.

"I hope he comes soon, it's almost time to go in," Clarrisse says, "even if we lose, it won't be as bad as showing up late...or not showing up at all."

"Well I must say, you guys both look great in your new glasses," I say, trying to lighten the mood.

"Thanks," they say, almost in unison. Clarrisse was even blushing a little.

"Alright initiates, line up. It's time to get in the maze," Sandra announces.

"But one of our team members isn't here yet," Clarrisse says.

"Well if he doesn't get here in one minute, you'll have to go on without him."

"But he's in the infirmary-"

"And I know why he's there, but rules are rules. And you're just going to have to go in without him and let him suffer the consequences," Sandra says,sympathetically.

After Sandra's last remark, Clarrisse stopped talking. Team one began to line up with uneasy looks on their faces. Then we hear a beeping noise, and team one rushes into the maze.

As time passes, I keep thinking about Zander not being here, and I become increasingly worried about his ranking.

Finally, after twenty long minutes, Zander comes running in.

"Am I too late? Did they already start without me?" Zander asks, out of breath.

"Unfortunately they already started. You're going to have to wait to see if they make it out in time," Sandra tells him.

"I'm really sorry about all this," I say.

"It's okay. None of this is your fault," he replies.

"But it is, I mean none of us told you to stop drinking and I sort of left you hanging this morning."

"Yeah...but you DID help me back to the dorms and you risked being a late this morning to wake me up. So far, you're turning out to be my best friend."

"You too. But you should know that Lexi and Clarrisse were really worried about you this morning." Then he mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't catch, and we waited in silence for 9 more minutes.

"They have one minute left," Lexi says with a worried look on her face.

Then we were down to thirty seconds. Then fifteen seconds. Then five. Then we heard the beeping noise that made our hearts sink.

Team one didn't make it out in time.

Zander, Lexi, and I nervously walked over to the board to look at the rankings. Our hearts sank some more.

Zander's name was below the red line.


	8. Chapter 8

I watched with dread as Zander walked quickly out of the training center. I started to run after him, but then I felt someone grab my arm. "We can talk to him later,"Lexi said, "but right now we have to go in the maze or we'll be below the red line too."

She let go of my arm as we made our way to the starting line. Then the alarm went off and we went in.

Luckily, I wasn't on a team with Alexandra today. I ended up looking for an exit with Lexi,but we weren't the ones to find it. In the end, we got out a minute and a half earlier than the other wasn't much, but we still won.

Our names were above the red line, but I knew we wouldn't be celebrating tonight. We still had to find Zander.

Lexi had already left to find him and I was one of the last to leave the training center. As I was walking out the door I heard someone call my name. "Caleb," shouted Sandra.

I turned around to face her. "I'm sorry about your friend," she said,like she actually meant it. I nodded and continued walking out the door. I was never quite sure what to say to her.

I started walking down the hallway, but then I heard a voice shout,"Caleb!"

It was Clarrisse. "Caleb, I found Lexi and Zander. They're in a study room in the library."

She grabbed my hand and we ran down the hall as fast as we could. (As fast as Clarrisse could run in heels)

We slowed down as we entered the library, then came to a stop in front of a clear glass door. She pulled me to the side wall so they couldn't see us. "Shhh," she said, "if we're quiet enough we can hear what they're saying."

I didn't say another word. I hated to admit it, but it felt exciting to eavesdrop.

"...I'm sorry we didn't stop you from drinking the fizzy drink," Lexi started,"...I...I'm sorry that I didn't stop you. I would've done something if I had known it would get you into this much trouble. I don't wanna lose you as a friend, I mean we've been friends since we were kids...and I don't want to lose you now."

Then Zander started talking,"look, I was mad at you and Clarrisse at first too, but I don't want to lose you either, and I know you'd never give me the fuzzy-fizzy drink on purpose...and I forgive you. And I'm sorry for not doing this sooner."

"Doing what?" Lexi asked.

"This."

Then it became quiet.

Clarrisse turned her head to look in the window, then she whispered,"Caleb," while pointing to the window. I turned my head around to look through the window, and I figured out why it was so quiet. Zander and Lexi were kissing.

I had rarely ever seen anyone kiss in public, but I definitely knew we shouldn't be watching them.

"We should go," I whispered. It was getting late and tomorrow was the last day of Stage one.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

**A.N sorry if it feels like kind of a filler. Please leave a review. Thanks for reading. **

**~Alex **


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